When distinctive urban elites compete within one neighborhood – the case of Vila Leopoldina, São Paulo (Brazil).

Keywords: urban conflicts, patrimonialism, são paulo, domination, elites, real estate development
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 43

Abstract

Urban elites often seem to act above the urban regulations applying to most citizens,
capturing land and wealth. This assertion is particularly true in the Global South,
where inequalities reach higher grounds: in São Paulo, 1% of real estate owners
account for 45% of the city's real estate value. In the meantime, close to a third of
São Paulo’s population leave in slum-like conditions. These figures attest to the
concentration of wealth and make it possible to apprehend urban Brazil’s great socio-
spatial inequalities, that go alongside with urban conflicts. We are particularly
interested in conflicts coming from the elites facing letting go of their monopole on
urbanity.

Through a socio-historical approach, this paper seeks to interrogate the variegated
elites domination dynamics in the production of this segregated space. We propose
the conceptual framework of patrimonialism in Brazil (Faoro, 1958; Maricato, 2008;
Ferreira, 2021) to analyze the relationships between the actors of an urban conflict
taking place in a neighborhood of São Paulo, Vila Leopoldina.

In this case study, the elites of the gentrified area resist against an urban project
planning to relocate underprivileged inhabitants into their neighborhood. At the same
time, the new housings were originally proposed by a globalized elitist industrial
company, currently diversifying its assets into real estate developments.

We show how these two types of elites, although ideologically aligned, are ending up
opposing each other to defend their own profit.